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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Broadway Community Joins Forces with The President’s Committee of the Arts and Humanities and The Smithsonian Institution To Assist in Preserving the Cultural Heritage of Haiti
May 11, 2010
The Broadway League and the Broadway community are the lead private sponsors as the Smithsonian develops Haitian cultural recovery project to help save theatres, artworks, artifacts, paintings, historic murals and historic buildings including theatres, museums, and churches

In conjunction with The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, the Smithsonian Institution, and various agencies, the Broadway community has decided to contribute funds to a very special project to protect and preserve the cultural heritage of Haiti.

Following the devastating earthquake in January, The Broadway League and several of its members including theater owners, shows, and producers have contributed $276,000 to a special Haiti fund. The collective desire is to help insure that the artifacts from theatres, museums and libraries be preserved for all time. This project aims to develop a site where artifacts from theatres, museums, and historic buildings can be stored and protected during the rainy season and until new sites are built or old sites are restored. At the present time, many of these artifacts will be lost without this effort.

Paul Libin, Chairman of The Broadway League and Vice President/Producing Director of Jujamcyn Theatres, said, “Theatre is the experience of a peoples’ art, music, poetry, their myths and experience; what better way to help the Haitian People than provide assistance for them to save their art, music, books and artistic record in order to preserve their cultural heritage thus enabling them to create the new. The Arts community is a family; it is our duty to help so all cultures and art can prosper.”

Charlotte St. Martin, Executive Director of The Broadway League, said, “When the earthquake hit Haiti, the Broadway community immediately reached out within hours and asked how we could be a part of relief or restoration. We are pleased that Broadway can support the restoration and help save a small part of the Haitian culture.”

"The Broadway League and the Broadway community stepped in at a crucial juncture for this project. It would not have been possible to make it happen, especially on this timeline, without their generous support," said Rachel Goslins, Executive Director, The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

Plans are being made to send a delegation to Haiti to collaborate and find out how to best help this project.